Ramiro Mendoza’s shoulders sagged as he coughed up Roger Clemens’ one-run lead in the eighth inning last night. Mendoza looked beaten, and was.

The Yankee reliever retired no one during a sorry, seven-pitch outing. David Segui hit Mendoza’s second offering, allegedly a sinker, into the upper deck in right. Two rocket singles later, Mendoza trudged off the mound.

Steve Karsay, whom Joe Torre passed over at the beginning of the inning, entered to allow a Tony Batista sacrifice fly.

And just like that the Yankees continued reeling.

Their 5-4 loss to the Orioles at the Stadium made them losers of six of their last seven, dropping them to 8-7.

Clemens, without his best stuff, bulled through his seven innings, finding a way to limit Baltimore to three runs.

After a Robin Ventura solo homer in the sixth broke a 3-3 tie, Clemens looked as if he received the boost he needed.

But then came the eighth. Torre started with Mendoza over Karsay because Karsay had thrown two innings Monday, and because of Mendoza’s success against lefties.

Segui is a lefty, but he launched a non-sinking sinker into the upper deck to tie the game 4-4.

Next, Jeff Conine punched a single to right. Jay Gibbons followed by smashing a shot so hard off the right-field wall that he only got to first, moving Conine to third.

When Torre emerged from the dugout, the 33,721 cheered wildly. Torre took the ball from Mendoza.

Then Batista took a Karsay splitter to right for the go-ahead sacrifice.

Mendoza, who took the loss, also gave up two runs in Saturday’s loss at Fenway. But Torre says he’ll stick with his set-up man.

“He’s been too good for us for too long to think he’s not the right guy,” Torre said.

“That is like saying I’m not going to let Jeter hit with the bases loaded.”

Last night, Jeter failed with the bags loaded. The bottom of the second had as much to do with the loss as the top of the eighth.

With three runs already in, the patient Nick Johnson walked to load the bases against righty Sidney Ponson.

Jeter looked at a 2-2 fastball for strike three. Next, Jason Giambi did the same.

The Yankees were saying all the right things after the game, talking about how early it is.